Welcome to this course. When building a small business network, the two most essential pieces of equipment you will need are switches and routers. Though they look similar, the two devices perform different functions within a network. Your computer network infrastructure is the backbone of your business. All your devices, applications, software, and most of your work are supported by or built upon your computer network. Therefore, planning, design, purchasing hardware, and security of a business computer network need to be a high priority for your business. Switches facilitate the sharing of resources by connecting together all the devices, including computers, printers, and servers, in a small business network. Thanks to the switch, these connected devices can share information and talk to each other, regardless of where they are in a building or on a campus. Building a small business network is not possible without switches to tie devices together. A router connects multiple switches, and their respective networks, to form an even larger network. These networks may be in a single location or across multiple locations. When building a small business network, you will need one or more routers. In addition to connecting multiple networks together, the router also allows networked devices and multiple users to access the Internet.

To build a computer network for your company, you need to consider quite a few things. Making a computer network run efficiently in a business environment is very different from setting up a home or domestic network. Business network design has a high degree of complexity and security challenges. While the type of network for your business will depend on your needs but the components of your computer network will remain the same.

At the end of this course, you will know how you to build and setup a small business wireless and wired network, and connect it to the Internet.